kop205

Total myth. He has had plenty of chances created for him, ball put right on his head and so on. He just hasn't put them away. Strange (but typically pre-Cup Final) article. Would be easy to criticise lots of what he says but the day before a Final we should close ranks. He hasn;t been a success and is yet to offer much evidence that he still coluld be, but we need to put that to the back of our minds until after tomorrow at least.

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She can have the f***ing place to herself as far as I'm concerned.

Laughably positive Echo slant on this, something like 'Liverpool solve ticket fiasco!' I think the club have got it spot on in principle, but this doesn't mean that the situation has been 'solved' at all. It is just a different group of people now getting f***ed over (myself included) and in theory we will still be 1000 fans down on the day. In practice though, I fear their decision may turn into a nightmare. What about people who haven't had their missing ticket, get a replacment, and then the missing one turns up so they end up with two? Can see this happening. What about people who claim not to have had their ticket when really they have, so get a replacement and end up with two which they then shift to a mate? (I know that this can be traced later due to signing for recorded delivery, but can still see it happening). As has already been said, there is f***ing no chance of the stadium actually dealing with people turning up with stolen ones, especially now the waters have been made even muddier by some 'stolen' tickets turning up (as suggested earlier, possibly a pan by the thieves to helpn them shift the ones they've kept). There could be a lot of people there who have got their ticket through very dubious means, knowingly or not. I'm pleased for those who did have tickets nicked but it is all still far from satisfactory, though the club have probably done the right thing and are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

I agree, as it would be madness to carry a large quantity of stolen tickets on the day of the game given the likely police presence / general hostility of other fans at the moment. Just still think it is strange that (a) so many tickets are suddenly turning up and (b) as I said before, there have been NO whispers at all about where they went to, where they are being sold etc. Suggests to me that not as many have been sold on as you might assume. Why that might be I wouldn't know - as you said, they could probably have shifted a fair few withiut too much trouble and are unlikely to wait until the day itself. Suppose at the end of the day I'm just trying to be an optimist and imagine a happy(ish) ending, with people's tickets turning up!

You know that for certain about 'stolen' tickets now turning up? Must admit, it seems strange to me that there have been no whsipers whatsoever about anyone trying to shift stolen tickets - which I would expect given (a) the quantity allegedly taken and (b) the fact that word normally gets around pretty fast in Liverpool anyway. Suppose they could be lying low until the day itself and will try to shift them then.

Not necessarily just the big cities in Sierra Leone (not that there really are any other than Freetown!). I saw some games way out in the back of beyond in between Bo and Kenema and in some pretty ropey parts of Freetwon as well. Think the channel is called Super Sports and has about 8 different channels if I remember correctly! You should have no problems finding games on in Ghana as that is a fair bit more develeloped than SL. They really love their English footy in West Africa and any bar that has the game will advertise it and be packed out.

I'll take it if you don't want it.

I am / was in the ballot, but would agree with that.

(a) there won't be many empty seats other than the stolen ones. (b) I assume that the 'plan' would be anyone in a stolen seat would be asked to produce their stub - if it is for a different, non-stolen seat, then they'll be ok. But yes, still chaotic. And still a blatant lie in the part of the stadium that they will even attempt to enforce this.

I assume their 'plan' is to let them in, then eject them - as it is easier to identify who has a stolen ticket once they take their seat, than it would be to cross check lists on the turnstiles as this would create a massive logjam, I would assume). Realistically though, are they going to have the manpower (or the will) to eject people who are desperate to see the match? Are they f***. Might as well face up to the fact that as things stand, people with stolen tickets WILL be getting in to watch the game. How many people that will be I don't know - the fact this has been fairly big news might have made people more cautious of buying off touts and they might be struggling to shift them all/reluctant to venture too close to the ground on Saturday. If that IS the case, then all the more reason to re-issue tickets. If they are serious about ejecting people with the stolen ones, then it is f*** all extra effort to issue replacements. They would still have to eject those who have stolen tickets, the only thing that would change would be the rightful owners would take their place and this would in no way add any extra 'safety concerns'. Like I said though, I think the real reason they won't issue duplicates is because it would force them to eject others and they are too s***house to / have no real intention of doing this.

'From Samantha Smyth-Foss-Parker-Bowles the 4th, Chelsea Season ticket holder and civilized human being'. Or something like that. f***ing hilarious that letter, actually sent them a reply to tell them how funny it was.

So in summary, the whole thing is an absolute f***ing mess, nobody has any idea how or even if it is going to be remotely sorted and as things stand there will be 1600 empty seats around the Liverpool section. Brilliant. Even so, for all the stubbornness of the Millenium, apathy of the FA and dithering of Liverpool, I refuse to blame anyone other than the horrible f***ing s*** bags who stole the tickets in the first place. I really f***ing hope that they find who did this. It is the chances of jon_hall and the like missing out that actually pisses me off more than the fact that my chances of one throught he ballot look to be shot now (as they were slim anyway). c****.

I've had plenty of disagreements with annyroad lately but that is b******s, mate. That isn't what he was doing at all. The stink that Paul Wilson, to name just one, created in the Observer after the Smith stuff was ludicrous. He actually described the singing at him as being 'unprecedented' (in an e-mail to me - we had a bit of heated correspondence over it!). The first point, about the media kicking up a stink had it been us, is entirely valid for me on the basis of recent evidence. There has been a lot of selective reporting about what goes on at games. Whether you condemn it or aren't rsed about it (and I think anny and I disagree over that), at least be consistent in your reporting of it (and I would agree with anny that there hasnlt been much consistency). I think his second comment, about him getting stick if he had sung it, was more tongue in cheek than anything given the various posters he was debating with (myself included) after the Utd semi about toilet trashing etc.

I'm hoping that ISN'T a Totenham/Jews/gas gag?

I agree he's had the chances, but that is the point - getting another 5 goals would have meant a drastic improvement in his conversion ratio. Fact is he didn't put those chances away and for me that detracts a bit from his season. It is a bit like saying 'If Cisse had a better touch and awareness...' If Crouch did all that he's done this year AND became clinical enough to score 18 goals then I'd agree that he'd had an excellent season. As it is, I'll settle for 'good'.

Comedy reading wasn't it? The funniest thing was when the Everton lad said about Gerrard getting sent off in the derby always raising a smile. Still smiling at the end, f***stick? And be honest - it was more like fullblown celebration rather than just a smile, wasn't it? They just set themselves up everytime. There were also two tremendously funny letters - one about the Utd fan last week who said he didnlt give a s*** if Rooney was fit for England as long as he was ok for Utd and one from a Chelsea fan whinging about an article last week saying how hated they are. I'll swear they were printed just because they were clearly written by a couple of pseudo-fan whoppers and the paper knew the hilarity they would cause. Paul Wislon and Will Buckley aside, the Observer sports stuff is excellent.

Generally agree though it is easy to say 'If he had scored five or so more goals...' - that is almost half his total again which is a big difference - like Gerrard getting 30 instead of 20. He has contributed but more can still come. As I said in an earlier post, no way he could get lower than 6/10 but I'd struggle to give him more than 7/10.

Agreed! No offence meant to Aunt Bridget, obviously!

Nice one. One-Four were back tracking a bit and saying they weren't sure, just popped into my local and they don't know but landlady will phone me if they find out. Not sure they'll get ART 5 or whether they just get ART 1 but will give it a go. Cheers mate.

How is the Toffee Lady these days? And as long as Kenwright is your chairman, you don't really have much scope to comment on people at other clubs being an embarrassment.

And he's in OSM today saying that he 'never' wnats to leave Chelsea - although apparently the interview was done before the semi (and not like he'd say anything else anyway, really). So plenty there to satisfy both sides in this! But of course it will never happen.

The One-Four in town claim they have our game on - though they did seem to think that it kicked off at 3.30 and it wouldnlt be the first time they've been wrong about the matches they've got. We do seem to have been on that Arabic channel a lot lately - West Ham and Villa games to name just two. No idea if they have a website to check though. If it is the Arabic channel, my local gets that too so it would save me going into town - problem is you never seem to know until just before kick off!

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Not sure. Heard someone in the queue the other day saying there will only be 500 tickets left over (although don't know where he got that from). Guess there would be at least 10,000 applications? So not good, in other words.